I wouldn't be surprised if there is an investigation over the safety of KERS, or at least the post-race procedures, if it is the determined the KERS unit is the cause. An explosion with 16 injuries is pretty hard to overlook.

I deal with lithium batteries all the time with model helicopters, planes, and cars. All that needs to happen is a small hole in the casing, or overcharging, or over discharging, and they go off. They burn like a high pressure flame thrower. Ticking bombs. I know of many people who have had their LiPo batteries ignite while being stored, with nothing going on, no charging, not being used, they just went off out of the blue (internal short), one friend had his garage burned down.

The batteries in the KERS systems are basically overcharged and over-discharged during every race.

Its not surprising. Senna had just started a new lap and was probably saving his freshly available KERS for his upcoming battle with Schumi. So he was taken out with full KERS and the batteries suddenly discharged in the garage as they were discharging them for transport is my guess.

I think Hamilton's drive was great, and I look forward to see a release of his on board for the first few laps. Button really seemed to be off his game and unhappy with everything McLaren gave him. Fernando, well I ended up rooting for Fernando to win it, he made a great push but that car just still doesn't have it all yet.

On the fire at Williams, my first impression as that Williams really knew how to celebrate a win!
After hearing it injured people though, that is massively unfortunate and I hope they can all make full recoveries.

I deal with lithium batteries all the time with model helicopters, planes, and cars. All that needs to happen is a small hole in the casing, or overcharging, or over discharging, and they go off. They burn like a high pressure flame thrower. Ticking bombs. I know of many people who have had their LiPo batteries ignite while being stored, with nothing going on, no charging, not being used, they just went off out of the blue (internal short), one friend had his garage burned down.

The batteries in the KERS systems are basically overcharged and over-discharged during every race.

Yeah the USPS is starting a ban on the shipping of Lithium batteries overseas starting this wednesday. It kinda sucks for us military folks who are overseas now, but they have more than good enough reasoning for it, as they have been linked to 2 cargo plane crashes since '06.

What a season!!! Messed up the Pirelli GP Challange result that I predicted, but absolutely worth it for an awesome season!!!

Hope the Williams crews who were injured in the garage to have a speedy recovery!!! What an eventful for such a great team, love to see Williams F1 Team back on the top of the podium. A pole, a win, and a huge fire in the garage.

Would it be possible sparks from the KERS pack while discharging ignited the fuel and fumes that's also being unloaded from the car???

Quote:

A massive post-race fire in the Williams garage as the team celebrated Pastor Maldonado's victory at the Spanish Grand Prix left the pit lane shrouded in acrid smoke as firefighters rushed in to tackle the blaze.

The FIA confirmed that there were 31 team members seen at the medical centre after the incident and that seven required further hospital treatment. It was believed that the fire started after fuel ignited as television footage showed an intense fire rising at the back of the Williams garage, while a number of teams reacted to help. A Williams team statement confirmed that three team members remained in hospital on Sunday evening:

"After today's Spanish Grand Prix a fire occurred in the team's garage which originated from the fuel area.

"Four team personnel were injured in the incident and subsequently taken to the medical centre. Three are now receiving treatment at local hospitals for their injuries, while the fourth has been released. The team will monitor their condition and ensure they receive the best possible care.

"The team, the fire services and the police are working together to determine the root cause of the fire and an update statement will be released in due course."

A Caterham statement soon followed, reading: "All the team's employees have been accounted for and four people have been taken to the circuit medical centre for examination; one with a minor hand injury and three with respiratory issues."

Frank Williams was quickly removed from the garage and later told Sky Sports "Everything was OK when I left, but there was a lot of smoke around so I don't really know. Secondary information says no-one's hurt but I must go and verify that because I think the police are still there."

An FIA statement confirmed the number of team members who were treated: "Thirty-one team members were seen by Circuit Medical Centre staff and all have been released, with the exception of seven who were transferred to a variety of local hospitals where they are receiving treatment.

The FIA is collaborating closely with the Spanish authorities investigating this incident and will be providing a further update as soon as more information becomes available."

Force India's chief operations officer Otmar Szafnauer also said that he thinks the teams reacting well to the situation.

"We were a few garages away having our debrief when we saw all the smoke and ran over. It smelled like an electrical fire to me - I've heard it could be a KERS pack - but we don't know. We all ran over to help and I've got to go and check on one of our mechanics who I believe inhaled some smoke. I think he's at the medical centre here so I'm going to go and check on him. I believe he's OK. We all ran down with our fire extinguishers to help put it out. It's good that we do have fire extinguishers almost everywhere in the garage but that is a bit fortunate that almost all the teams went down to help put it out."

Just checked the result and reading some of the news online at Hong Kong Airport now...trying to download the race sometime later....

well ill spoil it. Senna got hit in turn 1 and was subsequently taken out. My theory is that he had a full load of KERS on board because he knew that schumi was closing fast and he would need it.

And theres a lot of energy in a fully charged KERS pack, and they cant transport it charged. So they have to discharge it after the race. Something went wrong and the KERS pack discharged uncontrolled and ignited something near by and the blaze took off from there.

As someone stated previously the batteries they use are fairly volatile. So its not all that surprising